


dog days

by eveningbreeze



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Dogs, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, the title is stupid ignore it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:08:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24628327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eveningbreeze/pseuds/eveningbreeze
Summary: in which hawkfrost has a run-in with a dog, a tree, and a nosy medicine cat. in that order.
Relationships: Hawkfrost/Leafpool (Warriors)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	dog days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xbloodywhalex](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xbloodywhalex/gifts).



> birthday gift for xbloodywhalex! happy birthday loser
> 
> hawkleaf is great & makes way more sense than leafcrow in canon fight me

It starts like this:

Hawkfrost fights with Mothwing.

This is not something unusual. As siblings, they disagree all the time, particularly when Mothwing is irritated by one of Hawkfrost's more... ambitious ideas. This time, though, is more vicious. Probably it's the stress; after all, everyone's on edge with all four clans huddled together in one camp, having left behind friends and family and loved ones and the only home they've ever known to be ravaged by Twolegs beyond all recognition. The leaders are fighting constantly and no one's quite sure where they're headed or whether or not they'll even get there.

So yeah, it's been stressful. Which is why, this time, instead of the normal petty squabbles, it got more personal. Hawkfrost can't even remember what it was about - something stupid, probably - and then he'd said something about her healing skills, and she'd made a snide comment about his chances of becoming deputy, and he'd insinuated that he'd given her her position and could just as easily take it away, and she'd pointed out that he'd bring himself down with her and get them _both_ kicked out and maybe _this_ kind of bullcrap was why Mom had taken off without a backwards look, and-

-well. At that point, he'd stormed off to... recalibrate himself (he was _not_ sulking, no matter what Mothwing said) and, after a few hours of self-reflection, figured that he might have been _slightly_ inflammatory. Not that he'd said anything _wrong_ , just that there were better ways to say it.

Which is why he's out here, wandering around on the fringes of the woods they're currently camping in, looking for a squirrel big enough to make a suitable apology gift.

He's finally found an acceptable squirrel - large, healthy-looking, and plump - when the silence is shattered by a dog's bark.

Hawkfrost goes completely still, cursing furiously, but it's too late; the squirrel has already taken fright and scurried up the nearest tree.

Hawkfrost wants to strangle someone. Preferably this stupid dog.

The dog barks again, and Hawkfrost remembers Riverclan, huddled together helpless and vulnerable not so far away. He should probably go let the leaders know to be watchful... or he could go take care of it himself.

Hawkfrost hasn't had a good fight in _ages_. The decision is an easy one.

He follows the sound - and it's turned mean and vicious, the sound of a predator closing in on its prey - over two hills and across a small brook. His bloodlust is ramping up the longer he goes without flesh between his claws; he's practically frothing at the mouth with impatience when he emerges into an open clearing and it's there.

Hawkfrost takes in the scene at a glance. The dog is massive, about four times Hawkfrost's height. Its jaw - currently with all its teeth on display as it snarls at whatever prey it's cornered - is big enough to snap him in half if he's caught.

The key word is _if._

Warrior life had been hard for Hawkfrost from the start. He doesn't have the social skills to deal with unruly apprentices, the commanding presence to lead his clanmates, the patience to become a great hunter. All that his father had left him was his battle skills, and it's the one area Hawkfrost can indulge the side of him that longs for blood without repercussions. So where another cat might have run for backup, Hawkfrost doesn't think twice about attacking first.

The dog, distracted by its prey, doesn't even notice him until he's already on top of it. Its size works against it here; it bucks wildly, unable to twist around to grab him, as Hawkfrost sinks his teeth into its neck and digs in with his claws.

"Hey!" someone yells, but Hawkfrost is past caring. The dog crashes to the ground, flipping onto its back in an attempt to dislodge him. Hawkfrost springs clear before darting back in again, raking its soft belly with his claws.

Snarling, the dog kicks out with all its feet. One catches Hawkfrost in the stomach, sending him flying into a tree. He's stunned for a heartbeat, which the dog uses to clamber back onto its paws.

With the element of surprise gone, Hawkfrost needs a height advantage. He scrambles clumsily up the tree, hauling himself out of range of the dog's snapping jaws just in time as it stands up on its back legs. He's wondering just how to advance now - those massive teeth make any attack from above an uninviting prospect - when a small brown figure launches itself at the dog's heels.

The dog makes a short, confused noise and looks down, and that's all the opening Hawkfrost needs. Snarling, he drops out of the tree and aims right for the eyes.

The dog fairly screams, jerking away from him, and then screams again when it loses its balance. The brown cat on the ground shoves its paws out from underneath it, and Hawkfrost and the dog together crash to the ground.

Hawkfrost hits the ground hard and something in his stomach tears. Pain shoots through his body and his vision briefly goes black. For a moment, he can't move.

Then a scent like lavender fills his nose, and someone crouches beside him.

"Are you awake?" a voice asks. It's brisk and business-like, with no trace of panic or uncertainty. "If you can, please open your eyes."

Hawkfrost can hardly imagine opening his eyes right now - just lying here sounds like a much better idea - but he manages to squint one open to peer up at this stranger.

It's a golden-eyed she-cat about his age or younger, a brown tabby who looks vaguely familiar. "Good job," she says, smiling kindly. For some reason, she actually sounds like she means it. The thought strikes Hawkfrost as funny. "What're you smiling about?" she asks, but moves on without waiting for an answer. "Do you know who I am?"

After a moment, the name filters into his mind - Leafpaw. Thunderclan medicine cat. Firestar's brat. Mothwing's friend. The one cat who never seems to remember that borders apply to her. "Nn," Hawkfrost says.

The medicine cat hums, leaning forward to peer into his eye. "Could you open the other one, please?" she says. Hawkfrost does. "Concussion. Not good, but it'll have to wait until we get back to camp. Quickly, get on your feet. We need to hurry before it wakes up again."

Somehow, with the medicine cat's help, Hawkfrost struggles onto his paws. Once he's off the ground, his head is still spinning, but he feels a little better.

The medicine cat is pushing him towards the edge of the clearing, in the camp's direction, when he hears a faint snuffling noise. Hawkfrost looks back to see the dog, sprawled out on the ground and clearly starting to wake up. Even through the spinning, he knows what needs to be done. He's already changed direction to go finish it off permanently when the medicine cat rams her head into his collarbone.

"What are you _doing_ ," she whisper-shrieks. "It's waking up, we need to get back to camp!"

Hawkfrost doesn't get a chance to respond before she resumes pushing and somehow, he can't stop her. Maybe he's in shock that someone actually talked back to him like that. Or maybe he's delirious from blood loss and the concussion. Whatever.

Either way, they're already out of the clearing and halfway up the next hill when the dizziness clears enough that he remembers what he was going to do. "Hey, wait a minute, we need to go back!"

The medicine cat stares at him. "I'm sorry, _what?_ "

"You stopped me from killing that dog," Hawkfrost snaps. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wonders why he's bothering to explain at all. "I need to go back and kill it before it follows us to the clans."

The medicine cat actually _rolls her eyes._ Hawkfrost gasps, offended. "We barely _winded_ that thing; if we'd stayed any longer it would've _killed_ us. I -" she stops abruptly. "Quick. Back here."

Before he can react, she shoves him into a shallow hollow beneath a rocky outcropping and then follows herself. It's dark, and cramped, and then the medicine cat squeezes in beside him and the contact makes Hawkfrost go rigid with embarrassment.

Outside, a snuffling noise echoes against the rocks. The dog has recovered, then, and is looking for them. They can't go back to camp now without it following them. Hawkfrost thinks of the animal loose amongst the vulnerable elders and kits and winces.

And then he's distracted, because the medicine cat flinches and squeezes in further against Hawkfrost. Her soft warm side presses up against his, and it's been a long time since he's really _touched_ someone other than Mothwing so the sensation is sending him haywire and wow, actually she smells really nice -

Hawkfrost's brain short-circuits.

When it reboots, they're so close together that his face is practically buried in her scruff, and all he can hear is the quiet thumping of her heartbeat and the snuffling of the dog outside. Hawkfrost closes his eyes and tries not to breathe too deep.

The scent of lavender is almost overwhelming.

After a few, breathless moments, the sniffing fades as the dog's path turns away. The medicine cat relaxes and pulls away, leaving Hawkfrost's pelt feeling cold and staticky where her warm fur had touched it.

"I think the dog's gone," she says, peering outside.

"Hnn," Hawkfrost manages. He is not thinking about the dog.

"C'mon, let's hurry. We need to warn the leaders."

Hawkfrost stumbles after her, head spinning. The side she'd touched prickles like wildfire, stinging and cooling his skin at turns. How can a few moments of contact have shaken him this badly? Father would be mortified if he knew.

_Father._ The reminder, at least, snaps him back into rationality. Tigerstar would be so mortified if he could see his son now. Hawkfrost stops and shakes his head wildly to clear it. Focus on the dog. Right. When he looks up again, the medicine cat is watching him. "What is it?" he asks, torn between irritation and embarrassment.

"Oh." The medicine cat looks away quickly. "It's nothing, just - your ears were red."

Hawkfrost stares at her and feels the tips of his ears rush with heat. Ducking his head, he mumbles "oh," and hurries after her.

At the very least, the medicine cat seems just as embarrassed as he is, because she keeps up a steady stream of nervous chatter the whole way.

Most of her jabber washes right over him, blending into a pleasant, even current of sound. She has a nice voice, one that trips pleasingly over the words and makes even the simplest language sound beautiful on her tongue. His eyes are half closed, just listening to the rising and falling of her voice when he realizes that she's looking at him expectantly. "What," he says belatedly.

"My name's Leafpaw," she says, in a tone that implies she's said this once or twice already. "I don't think I ever told you."

"Oh." It takes him a moment to realize what she's waiting for. "I'm Hawkfrost." He's pretty sure she already knows this, but whatever.

Her beaming smile tells him he's guessed right. "Thank you for saving me from that dog, Hawkfrost," she says. "I was collecting herbs and it came out of nowhere. It cornered me before you showed up."

Hawkfrost hadn't been thinking about saving her - hadn't even noticed she was there, really. But the praise makes his pelt prickle in a nice way, so he ducks his head and tries to ignore the way his ears burn. "It's nothing, I- you're welcome," he says. It feels terribly inadequate.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice is asking him _she's Firestar's daughter, an_ enemy _, why do you_ care _if it's inadequate?_ Hawkfrost pushes it aside. He doesn't really, he's just being polite, okay?

Leafpaw beams and trots nearer to walk beside him, nudging his shoulder with her nose. "I think we made a pretty good team out there," she says. "Wouldn't you-" she stops abruptly, nose twitching. "Oh!"

Hawkfrost watches, bemused, as she drops low to the ground to peer at his stomach. "You're bleeding!" she cries.

"It kicked me," he points out.

"I didn't realize!" She looks stricken, and something in his heart clenches.

"It doesn't hurt that much," he assures her before remembering that he's not supposed to be worried about her feelings. "I mean, it didn't- you're-" he fumbles his sentences, the words slipping away. Luckily, Leafpaw doesn't seem to notice.

"My supplies are all at camp, so I can't do much here, but we can at least keep it from getting infected," she says, and then she leans forward and-

For the second time today, Hawkfrost's brain short-circuits.

" _What are you doing,_ " he yelps ( _definitely_ not a shriek), springing back.

Leafpaw looks up at him, confused, with her tongue still poking out. "I'm cleaning it," she points out, but Hawkfrost isn't really listening.

"You _licked_ me," he says, uncomprehending.

Leafpaw stares at him with wide eyes before blushing bright red. "Don't- don't make this weird!" she stammers. "It's a perfectly normal medicine cat thing to do!"

" _You licked me,_ " he repeats. Hawkfrost's brain is trapped en loop, cycling back again and again to the point where he'd felt her tongue on his skin.

" _For medical reasons!_ " Leafpaw's entire face is completely red. From the way his own face is burning, Hawkfrost is sure he matches. "I'm disinfecting your wound! I'm a medicine cat! I'm not- I can't just- oh, _just get over here and let me treat you._ "

"Just... disinfecting," Hawkfrost repeats. Stars, he sounds like a broken record. Leafpaw nods, still blushing to the tips of her ears. "Ah. Right. I... I knew that." He sits down and lets Leafpaw get to work, and they both pretend they aren't as flustered as they feel. Hawkfrost shivers when she touches his skin and Leafpaw makes a high-pitched noise that could be termed a squeak. After that, though, her licks are careful but clinical and when she finally pulls away they can't meet each other's eyes.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Hawkfrost coughs. "Maybe we should hurry back to camp," he mutters.

"Um! Right!" Leafpaw very carefully does not look at him and instead launches into a fresh stream of inane babble to distract them both as they walk. It doesn't quite take away the tinge of pink on her ears.

The arrival at camp is somehow both a relief and a disappointment at the same time. Leopardstar takes one look at the two of them and immediately calls Mothwing over, status reports be damned, and Leafpaw is dragged off by her father to do... whatever it is Thunderclanners do. He doesn't even get a chance to say goodbye (not that he'd want to, obviously. He's just pointing it out).

Hawkfrost watches her go, with her father's tail draped over her shoulders, and feels a sting of jealousy somewhere deep inside.

He's not sure which one of them he envies more.

"Must be nice, huh?"

Hawkfrost almost jumps out of his skin and whips around, claws unsheathed, to see his sister gazing after Leafpaw wistfully.

"To have parents that actually care about you," she adds, as though he hadn't figured that out already.

Hawkfrost scowls and wills his heart to stop pounding so hard. "First of all, don't sneak up on me like that. And second, Father _does_ care about us. You'd know that if you agreed to meet with him," he says quietly.

Mothwing looks at him with an odd expression that he can't quite decipher before she says, "Whatever you say, Hawkfrost. Show me where it hurts."

Under normal circumstances, he'd bristle with rage at the dismissal and insist they finish the conversation now, regardless of eavesdropping onlookers or his already-tenuous place in the clan. But today, he's so off-kilter that he lets his sister get on with it without a fuss. As further proof of his encroaching insanity, he even apologizes.

"Sorry about what I said earlier," he mutters. "It was... out of line. I shouldn't have said it."

Mothwing actually drops her cobwebs and steps back to look at him, probably wondering if he's lost his mind, which is not entirely unlikely at this point. After a moment, though, her expression breaks into a sad little half-smile that does something weird to his heart. Almost like it's not supposed to be there, or like he should make it better.

_I really_ am _going insane,_ he thinks in horror. _That frog-brained medicine cat apprentice did something to my head._

"Thank you," his sister says. "I shouldn't- I'm sorry for what I said about Mom. You know she didn't leave because of you, right?"

His mouth goes dry and for a moment, he forgets how to talk. "Yeah," he says belatedly, because Mothwing's staring at him now and her eyes are doing the dumb worried thing. He's a full-grown warrior; he doesn't need to be worried about, darnit, and especially not for something pathetic like this.

He's still thinking about it in the makeshift medicine cat den later that night. It's not that he thinks it's _his_ fault, specifically, that Sasha had dumped them both off. Father's already told him everything - she was a cold-hearted rogue who used cats up and ditched them when she was done. So Sasha was a terrible cat to begin with.

But... she'd been pretty blasé about ditching her kits the first chance she'd gotten, and from what he's observed, mothers are supposed to be more attached to their children than that.

So it's definitely a problem with _her_ , but that doesn't rule out the possibility of a problem with _them,_ and given the way Mothwing seems to collect friends like fleas, it doesn't seem to be a _them_ problem anyway.

As usual, it comes down to Hawkfrost in the end.

People have always seemed more inclined to leave him behind, no matter what he does - he's either too weak or too strong, too soft or too cold. Too little Clan blood or too much. Mothwing's been able to carve something of a place for herself, here, but Hawkfrost's has always been fragile. He's heard the things people say about him, seen the way they stare. _Too much of his father in him-_ as though his father isn't the only one who's ever bothered to see his potential. Everyone else is too busy leaving him behind.

Just look at the way the medicine cat had fled, once she'd gotten the chance.

Hawkfrost buries his face underneath his paws and tries to will the medicine cat to leave his mind, with middling success.

He's halfway through mentally reciting the different breeds of fish that live in the river when he hears something move outside the den.

In a heartbeat, he's on his paws, hunched over in a battle crouch. His wound protests painfully, but he pushes the pain aside. For a blind, panicked moment, he thinks the dog has come back, and is waiting just outside.

Then he smells lavender, and his hackles go down of their own accord.

A moment later, Leafpaw steals into the den, glancing furtively over her shoulder. "Don't freak out, it's me. I brought- oh, Hawkfrost!" Her brow furrows when she catches sight of the fresh stains seeping onto his bandages, and Hawkfrost's heart skips a beat.

"It's fine," he says quickly.

Leafpaw doesn't bother dignifying that with a reply. He can almost hear her fuming as she strips, cleans, and re-binds the wound (so, so gently - her paws feel like dandelion fluff). "Don't say it's _fine_ when you're clearly bleeding all over the place, mousebrain," she says.

Hawkfrost tries not to fidget as she pulls the cobwebs tighter. "Mothwing fixed it already... I opened it when you came back," he explains. The thought strikes him abruptly - she'd gone, yes, but she hadn't _left_ him. "You came back," he says again, wonderingly.

"Of course I did!" Leafpaw blinks, golden eyes wide with shock. "You _saved_ me, I'm not going to just forget that. Even if we haven't gotten along so well in the past. And on that note, um..." she trails off, eyes skating to the side and teeth nibbling her bottom lip.

_Nervous._ Hawkfrost identifies the reaction automatically, but for the life of him can't imagine what it's for.

"I... think I may have misjudged you," she says at last in a soft voice. She looks back to him with a sheepish smile and, tentatively, holds out a paw. "Can we start over? I'd like to be friends."

_Friends._

She wants to be _friends._

Hawkfrost stares down at the outstretched paw and, not for the first time today, finds himself completely at a loss for what to do.

What is it with this strange medicine cat? She knows his parentage, knows that by birthright, he and she are sworn enemies. She's never trusted him - their few run-ins before today have made that clear. It's obvious from the hatred in her sister's eyes that she fully expects him to follow in his father's footsteps (and oh, she has no idea just how _right_ she is-) and he would've expected Leafpaw to share that.

But she's standing before him now, reaching out to him with that painfully naive, painfully kind smile and waiting for him to answer.

The decision, as always, is obvious.

Hawkfrost slowly, gently places his paw on top of her own. "I'd like that," he says quietly.

Leafpaw's answering smile is like the sun. He can hardly stand to look at it. "I need to go now," she says. "Dad wants me to sleep with the clan. But I'll come see you again tomorrow before we leave," she adds fiercely, daring him to defy her.

Hawkfrost blinks and tries to force away the warmth welling up inside his chest. "I'll- I'll see you then," he manages to say.

Leafpaw hesitates, looking like she's wavering on the edge of something. Before Hawkfrost can ask what it is, she abruptly leans forward, swipes a tongue across his ear, and flees from the den without waiting for a response.

_... she licked me,_ is the first, stupid thought his flustered mind can form. _And this time, it wasn't for medical purposes._

Hawkfrost whimpers.

He's an idiot. This is a perfect opportunity - the chance to get in close with Firestar's daughter, to gain her trust before he ultimately betrays her and claims his birthright. This is everything his father would want him to take advantage of and more. It's the reason he accepted her stupid request to be friends in the first place - and who even just _asks_ to be friends like that, anyway?

Ridiculous. He's just using her.

So why can't he forget the feeling of her fur against his own, or the kindness in her eyes when she'd wrapped his wound?

Briefly, Hawkfrost considers the merit of beating his head against the floor until he passes out. But then he'd just have to get it fixed again, and Mothwing would scold him or wasting her time, and Leopardstar would shake her head in disappointment, and Leafpaw would look at him with those sad eyes-

Wait, no. Not that last one.

_Frog dung._

Hawkfrost squeezes his eyes shut and forcibly ejects all thoughts of the stars-damned medicine cat apprentice. Tonight, he'll see his father again, and maybe by tomorrow, the strange warmth in his chest whenever he thinks of her will be gone.

Definitely.

That night, instead of his father, Hawkfrost dreams of soft paws, the scent of lavender, and gentle, golden eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> their song is fools by lauren aquilina no i dont take constructive criticism
> 
> also before someone gets on my case for this: no, hawkfrost's thoughts on mothwing/sasha/his clanmates are not accurate. he's being manipulated by tigerstar to believe that everyone hates him except for his dad.
> 
> ^ for more thoughts on that hmu at my tumblr (goosewhisker) because i originally typed up an authors note explaining his motivations/tigerstar's influence and it totalled at like 500 words so i couldn't put it here but i have been DYING to talk abt this


End file.
